With the development of industrial activities, it became necessary to resort to foreign workforce in the principality. So in the 60s the regulation for immigration to 33% was elaborated, sanctioned with a law of 1962.
The following year, Switzerland was asked to represent the principality abroad, while retaining its full right to international sovereignty.
According to Abbreviationfinder, the political life of the country, administered by 5000 voters, excluding women. This is because the majority of them were represented by foreigners married to the natives, therefore potential elements of interventions by other states.
The main parties, that of the Conservative Progressive, known as the “blacks”, and that of the Patriotic Union, known as the “reds”, have always fought vigorously for the conquest of power. The blacks were uninterruptedly in government from 1930 to 1970. Then, after a brief period in 1974, they regained it. Each legislature in the principality lasts for 4 years.
Prince Francis Joseph II was a great collector of works of art, a very experienced businessman but above all a skilled diplomat. He always had the right of veto on any matter proposed by the “Diet” but in practice he did it only once, when the Diet asked to approve the hunting ban. His undisputed sovereignty served to reassure the people from the danger of a possible, not impossible, development.
In 1974, at the helm of the coalition government between the only two parties of the principality, there was W. Kieber, who however remained only for one legislature.
In fact, the February 1978 political elections awarded victory to the Union, whose leader H. Brunhart formed the coalition government. And this was also in the subsequent elections of 1982, 1986 and 1989, always with the same leader.
The immobility of politics in the principality lies in the fact that substantially there are no significant differences in government programs. Other tiny groups of voters, who came to the vote, such as the Free List, which is more of an ecological nature than anything else, have always attracted an insignificant number of preferences.
In the decade of the nineties, however, there have been social and cultural changes in public opinion. Among these, the modification of the Criminal Code, advocated by Crown Prince Hans Adam, in receiving the investiture on the death of his father Francesco Giuseppe II, which occurred in 1989. With this reform the death penalty was abolished but the abortion ban was kept in force.
For foreign policy, the principality, after joining the Council of Europe in 1978, joined the United Nations in 1990 and in 1991 became a full member of the “European Free Trade Association” ( EFTA).
Among the changes that occurred in the Principality, the major was undoubtedly the birth of a third party, beyond the traditional ones, namely the “Free List”, with ecological purposes, which was highlighted with the legislative elections of February 1993.
The head of this party, M. Buchel, was assigned the task of forming the new executive who, however, fell a few months later because the leaders of the party considered the leader’s policy more personal and social.
New elections were called for October 1993, once again won by the Patriotic Union, known as the “red”, whose leader, M. Frick, formed a coalition government, introduced the country into the “European Economic Area” in May 1995 and led it until February 1997, when political elections took place. These, although not registering substantial changes in the political framework, however, led to the conclusion of the coalition between the two main parties and the Patriotic Union constituted a single-colored government, led by Frick himself, something that had not occurred since 1938.
The leader of the Progressive Party, N. Seeger, wanted to propose to the opposition, convincing his voters not to express a favorable opinion for another coalition, in order to place himself in the center-right position, in a clear and unequivocal way, leaving the anonymity in which he had always been forced, behind the other party.